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You want to be able to teach your kids how to grow their own food without pesticides and herbicides.
You want them to enjoy their time outside as you did as a child, helping them learn about nature, insects and bugs, plants and flowers.
The problem is your kids have no interest in gardening. And, you find it difficult to pass on the love and the knowledge that you gained to them. Your kids will grow up thinking that gardening is a waste of time and they do not want to learn how to grow their own food. This will make them more dependent on others for their food and their health. They will start believing that they need a good doctor to take care of them.
In this article, I would like to reveal 3 simple steps you can take to teach your children how to garden. These steps are designed to help you get your children interested in gardening as early as possible. And your children will learn the joys of growing their own food. Even if they become old enough to leave home, they will have something valuable to remember from their childhood.
Sounds good?
Let’s dive in.
The first thing you need to do is to make them understand why gardening is important to you. This might seem like a difficult task, but in reality, it’s quite simple. If you tell them you’re doing it for their health, they’ll care. If you do it because it gives you a sense of control over nature, they’ll get interested. If you do it for them to enjoy the environment, they’ll get motivated. If you do it because of the health benefits to you and others around you, they’ll be inspired.
Why You Need to Teach Kids Gardening
A Chance to Learn While Having Fun
I can stress enough that learning through gardening is an enjoyable experience for children. Children can learn tons of scientific things by planting plants and studying the life cycle with a seed, types of insects, and how human intervention affects the environment.
Real-Life Experience
It is fantastic to watch a seed turn into a tree as a baby grows into childhood. Gardening teaches children about the necessities of life – water, sunlight, air, and soil. Those necessities were easy to compare to human needs, such as water, shelter, food, and air. Over time, kids will learn to love and appreciate their plants and the lives around them. Growing a garden is the best way to show kids how life should be – with care and love.
Healing Therapy
Several studies show that gardening can reduce stress by relaxing the mind. Any age group can benefit from this. In addition, it stimulates all five senses. You might not believe this, but gardening can be used as therapy for abused children or from broken homes because it can help them build self-esteem.
Strengthening family bonds
The delightful ambiance in the garden will make you forget your stressful work life for a while. But, it’s much better if you have fun and spend time with your children in that beautiful garden.
While you water the plants, you can talk, or you can work quietly. The bottom line is, always do what you have to do, together with your kids. When you spend time in your garden with your child, you might learn a lot about them.
How to Pass on Gardening Love and Knowledge to Kids
Tell Kids About Why Gardening
The first thing to do is to explain to your kids the reasons you do gardening.
To really get them interested, start with the physical and mental health aspects. It could be that you garden because it helps keep your body healthy. If you’re feeling run-down or are prone to illness, gardening can be a great way to stay well.
Next, you make love gardening because it makes you more aware of what you are eating. It helps you take care of yourself and your family (including your kids) better.
Whatever your gardening reasons are, make up them into interesting stories and tell your kids. It’s will be surprisingly fun and effective.
Learning by Doing
Once you’ve explained why you garden, then it’s time to start doing the physical work.
And, the best way to teach your kids how to grow vegetables is to put them in the garden when they are very small. In other words, your kids will quickly learn the basics of gardening if you give them the opportunity to help.
The first step is to get out into the garden and let kids see what you are doing.
And if they can see you taking the time to plant, they’ll most likely follow your lead. While doing each task, you can explain simply the process to your kids. You can also talk about how to avoid pest problems. For instance, you can tell your kids that they need to keep the area free of weeds so that insects don’t have a place to hide. I have found these organic gardening kits come in handy in my situation.
You can also teach them about the importance of keeping plants watered. And if you have a compost bin or worm farm, then you can show them how to use it.
After making friends with the garden and mastering the skills of using gardening tools, you can let them help you when you plant. There are some simple tasks that kids can handle by themselves like watering, planting seedlings, and pulling weeds, etc.
Your kids also love seeing all the different vegetables growing in their own little pots and boxes. So, it’s a great idea to let your kids grow and take care of their own plant which could be a tiny tomato or potato.
Final Thought
Gardening is an environment-friendly activity the children enjoy participating in. And, teaching children about the world around them is one of the most valuable things you can do for them. They may not remember everything you teach them, but they will remember how much fun they had learning it. And that will be something they can treasure their entire life.
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